When cloud storage services started appearing they proved very popular, with Dropbox being the standout example of how easy and useful files in the cloud can be. The convenience of having an online storage pool you can access from any and all devices is great, and such services are only going to get more popular as we consume ever more digital content.

There is a problem, though. Each service has its own set of terms and conditions, and if you violate the rules, you could see your account suspended and access to your files cut off. This has recently been demonstrated by Megaupload being taken offline, but in that case all users lost their files, not just a few individuals.

This problem gets worse if the cloud storage service you use is linked to other services. One example of this is Microsoft’s SkyDrive, which is accessed through a Windows Live login that is also used for accessing Hotmail, Messenger, and Xbox Live. If your account gets suspended, you lose access to all those services.

Now, many of us including myself, view a secure cloud storage service as a place to put any and all files I want to ensure I don’t lose. But if you use SkyDrive, you might be surprised to find content you deem as harmless and personal will get you banned. And the first you’ll know of this is the next time you try to login to find your account suspended.

As an example, say you’ve been on holiday and took some shots of your family on the beach in their swim wear. SkyDrive does not allow “partial human nudity,” so there’s a chance you may get banned for those images. You also aren’t allowed to store works protected by any laws e.g. copyright law, so does that mean you can’t store your legal ebooks on there? Maybe you can amd maybe the holiday photos are fine, but the point is that decision is Microsoft’s and you run the risk of an account suspension through no real fault of your own because of ambiguity.

Users are being caught out by this SkyDrive content monitoring. A photographer lost his account for storing images of partial nudes earlier this year. Then in May a Dutch user lost access to 12GB of files due to a file/s containing prohibited content, but it doesn’t look as if Microsoft told him exactly what that content was. There’s bound to be many more incidents such as this.

The issue here is that your personal cloud storage service of choice probably isn’t personal at all. The company providing the storage may monitor content and will likely block access to it without warning if it finds something it doesn’t like. And in the case of Microsoft, that also means you lose other services, too.

Such rules cannot apply to an area of personal online storage without some kind of process being in place for the user to review the content deemend unacceptable. Access to other files must also be allowed to continue during a dispute. If a service can’t promise that, then there is no point storing any important files in the cloud because one day you might lose access to them, possibly forever, and never know why.